California Newspaper Transcriptions
Crimes and Criminals (pre 1924)
HOP-FIELD RIOTS (Edward T. Manwell & Thomas Riordan)
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
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HOP-FIELD RIOTS
(Edward T. Manwell & Thomas Riordan)
On Sunday evening, August 3, 1913, the people of Marysville were
startled by news from Wheatland, twelve miles south, that Edward T. Manwell,
district attorney of Yuba County, had lost his life, that Sheriff George H. Voss
had been mortally wounded and that a deputy sheriff named Thomas Riordan had
been killed, as the result of an I. W. W. agitation in the camp of the
hop-pickers on the Durst Brothers’ place, which adjoined Wheatland. Citizens,
aided by the police, at once formed relief parties, and these parties hastened,
armed, to the scene. Coroner J. K. Kelly and his deputies, with City Marshal C.
J. McCoy, now sheriff, were among the first to arrive at Wheatland, where they
found the residents terrorized by the awful events of the afternoon.
Investigation proved that the trouble in the hop-fields had been
brewing for several days. Agents of the I. W. W. had worked, in their usual
way, to cause the men and women employed by Durst Brothers to become
dissatisfied with their wage and with camp conditions as regarded sanitation and
other matters. On the day prior to the murder of the district attorney and the
attack upon the sheriff, a committee headed by the leaders of the I. W. W.
contingent had waited upon R. H. Durst of Durst Brothers with a written demand
for an increase in the pickers’ rates, for movable toilets in the field, for
separate toilets for the women, for “high-pole” men, for lemonade made from
lemons instead of acid, for the delivery of drinking water in the field twice a
day, and for a committee from the pickers to inspect the hops and pass on them.
Early in the morning of the fatal day, a second visit was paid Durst by the
committee. Durst accepted some of the terms and vetoed others, chiefly the
demand for increased pay, saying he would continue to pay the wages generally
paid in California by growers of hops.
Durst visited Wheatland, and without swearing to a complaint,
demanded that Constable Lee Anderson arrest the leader of the strikers.
Complying with Durst’s request, Anderson went to the field and attempted to
arrest the man pointed out by Durst. The reception given Anderson was a rough
one, Anderson having confessed that he did not have a warrant of arrest.
Returning to Wheatland, he had a complaint drawn. Armed with a warrant, he now
made another attempt to arrest the leader. This time he received a reception
even warmer than the first. In the scrimmage, in which women pickers as well as
men participated, Anderson was wounded in the arm, and was fortunate to escape
with his life.
Again repairing to Wheatland, Anderson notified Sheriff G. H. Voss
over the phone of the conditions, and advised immediate action. The sheriff
assembled several deputies in Marysville, among them the man Riordan, whom he
knew to be fearless, and proceeded to Wheatland. Arriving there, he was met by
District Attorney Manwell, who had spent the day in Wheatland on legal business.
Manwell volunteered to accompany the posse to the scene of the trouble.
On their arrival at the hop-fields, the officers found that an
indignation meeting was in progress, with one man perched on a box in the center
of a dance platform, making a speech of an incendiary character. Making his way
through the crowd, Manwell sought the cause for the gathering. As he did so the
strikers surged around him, and about the sheriff and his deputies. In the
excitement, a portion of the platform broke down, as did the box the speaker was
standing upon. This seemed to intensify the bad blood among the rioters. As
Manwell stood with his arm upraised, and with cigar in hand, appealing to the
strikers to “keep the peace,” he was shot down, and died almost instantly.
The rioters then turned their attention to the other “Scissorsville
officers,” this being the term by which the leader had referred to the sheriff
and others in his speech before their arrival. Sheriff Voss was next attacked.
A large Porto Rican among the strikers secured the sheriff’s club, and was
beating him over the head with it when Deputy Sheriff Henry Daken, a resident of
Wheatland, unloaded one barrel of his shotgun into the back of Voss’ assailant,
killing him instantly. Just who shot the man Riordan was never learned with
certainty.
After killing the Porto Rican, Deputy Sheriff Daken was compelled to
shoot another man, a Mexican, in the hand. His gun was then empty, and he was
forced to flee the mob. He arrived at the store building pursued by about
twenty of the rioters. Taking a position behind the counter, after the doors
were locked, he exchanged his clothing for other garments provided him, and
shaved off his moustache. Thus disguised, he was able peaceably to retreat from
the building toward evening, after the mob had threatened to burn the place.
Daken was later the principal witness at the trial of the murderers of District
Attorney Manwell. But for the work of Daken, the horde probably would have
murdered every one of the sheriff’s deputies.
The unfortunate district attorney was a member of the Wheatland
branch of Odd Fellows. Members of the lodge, as soon as they learned of the
murder, formed a committee to go to the scene of the crime and recover the body.
At risk of being treated roughly, the committee well performed their
disagreeable task. They met some faint opposition, but finally, on proving that
their mission was a peaceable and sacred one, were able to remove the remains to
their hall, to rest there till the arrival of the coroner.
Several suspects were arrested by City Marshal C. J. McCoy and taken
to the County Jail in Marysville. On the following morning, Adjt.-Gen. E. A.
Forbes, close friend of Manwell and former resident of Yuba County, ordered
Company I, of Oroville, and Company G, of Sacramento, together with Troop B of
the latter place, to Wheatland, where martial law reigned for several days.
Sheriff Voss was removed to a Marysville hospital, where he was
forced to remain until well into September before reporting at his office. For
a time his life was despaired of; and while he lived for several years after
this experience, his friends contended that his life was cut short by the
treatment he received on “bloody Sunday” at Wheatland.
Through arrests made, and through further investigation, E. B.
Stanwood, who was appointed by the supervisors to succeed E. T. Manwell as
district attorney, learned with the aid of other officers that “Blackie” Ford
and Herman D. Suhr were the ringleaders among the I. W. W. rioters. Ford was
traced to Winnemucca, Nev., and returned on August 18 to Marysville, where he
was recognized as a man who previously had preached I. W. W. doctrine in the
county-seat. Suhr was taken in Prescott, Ariz.
The trial of Ford and Suhr, together with that of several suspects
indicted by the grand jury for the murder of Manwell, began on January 12, 1914.
In the court-room appeared a number of “sob-sisters,” some representing a San
Francisco journal, and some others, members of organizations allied with the I.
W. W. The latter organization rented a house across from the courthouse and
established headquarters there, sending out literature intended to create
sympathy for the men on trial. The jurors chosen to hear the evidence were A.
F. Folsom, Browns Valley; W. H. Finch, eastern Yuba County; A. J. McCarty,
Hammonton; C. E. Stephenson and Frank Platte, Marysville; Emile Picard, who
later was one of the victims, with his wife, in a double murder, mentioned in
this chapter; C. E. Shogren, August Erickson, and Edward Carlson, all of Arboga;
R. L. Alderman, of Waldo; John J. Norton, of Marigold; and W. Bainbridge, of
Rackerby. A. C. Allread, a Marysville blacksmith, was selected by agreement as
an alternate juror, to take part in the verdict in the event of sickness or
death of any member of the jury. Daily attendants at the trial were men well
known as active in I. W. W. ranks. Such as were suspected of being present for
ulterior purposes were closely watched by the officers.
District Attorney Stanwood was assisted in the prosecution of the
defendants by W. H. Carlin, well-known Marysville attorney, who bore a
State-wide reputation as a criminal lawyer, but who always preferred to be on
the side of the defense. It was proven by the prosecution that Suhr had, during
the agitation at Wheatland, sent a telegram to I. W. W. headquarters at San
Francisco, ordering that “more wobblies be sent to Wheatland.” A verdict of
conviction was returned against both Ford and Suhr, and they were given life
sentences. Several unsuccessful attempts have been made to secure their parole,
but to no avail. Judge E. P. McDaniel, who presided at their trial, would never
take a part in any movement toward commutation of sentence of parole.
In Memoriam
Edward Tecumseh Manwell was a native of Wheatland. He taught school
a number of years in his native county, at the same time studying law. His
first political office was that of Assemblyman; and he served two terms as a
representative from this district, then known as the Eighth Assembly District.
He next was chosen county superintendent of schools, holding the office from
1906 to 1910. In 1910, he succeeded Fred H. Greely, present county auditor and
recorder, as district attorney, filling the office until his death. He was a
member of the Masonic fraternity, as well as of the Odd Fellows, and had served
as a member of the National Guard.
Manwell was survived by his widow and eight children, the oldest
being Ray Manwell, who at the time this is written is himself filling the office
of district attorney. The remains of Edward T. Manwell rest in the family plot
at Wheatland. The funeral procession that proceeded from Wheatland, where the
services were held, to the grave, was attended by people from all walks of life
in Yuba and the surrounding counties.
The conviction of Ford and Suhr has for years caused the I. W. W.’s
to give this section a wide berth. The Wheatland tragedy, it should be added,
had the effect of arousing the people of the State to legislation providing more
definite rules for camps where workers are employed, particularly as to sanitary
conditions, proper housing, water supply, etc.
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles